Spotlight Interview with debut author Kasey Crawford Kellem

Kasey Crawford Kellem, a School Counselor and former Special Education Teacher, has devoted her life to helping children facing adversity be resilient. Kasey created a series of book for kids titled Mind Over Matter (M.O.M.) Books to teach children skills to overcome life´s challenges. She has earned a Bachelor´s Degree and Masters Degree in Special Education and an Educational Specialist Degree in Counseling.

Many may wonder if this counselor turned author truly follows what she teaches others. Kellem shared a little about the process of finding publisher. She said, "I followed my own resiliency philosophy of BELIEVING I will find someone who believes in me! After one publisher declined my book despite a few months of correspondences, I simply put out a facebook post and one of my former students set me up with his sister´s publishing company. Lisa Mina from Halo Publishing International loved my books and their purpose! She focuses on children´s books, Christian books and books that help others! My book could have fallen under all three of those categories. I am grateful for social media!"

Kellem grew up in a "traditional nuclear family" as she put it, which included her mom, dad and three sisters in Fairview Park, Ohio. She said she played sports and percussion instruments in the band, and was pretty much the class clown. After attending Magnificat High School, she went on to earn her Bachelor´s and Master´s Degrees. She now is a counselor at Normandy High School and has created a wonder book series for not only children, but those who work with them as well.

The Mind Over Matter Books are geared towards young children to help them learn how to be resilient. Children need to be prepared with the right tools to face the challenges, adversity and obstacles that may become a part of their lives. These book show, through whimsical illustrations and simple wording, how to be resilient. The books are designed to also serve as decorations in a child´s bedroom or playroom on bookshelves, nightstands or desks, which will serve as constant resiliency reinforcement. Kellem said, "Everyone faces tumultuous times in their lives and what better way to help keep your focus than by seeing the Mind Over Matter Books in your room."

Kellem´s goal is to get the books into the hands of as many children under age six as this is the perfect age to start introducing them to the five concepts of resiliency. "I have been intrigued by resiliency since I began teaching. I even went back to college for another degree beyond my masters to study resiliency in the form of school counseling," shared Kellem.

She also wanted to further her studies on how to teach kids resiliency, but was unable to do so at her school district at that particular time. She is still determined to teach kids how to be resilient and this is how she later came up with the Mind Over Matter (M.O.M) Books. Kellem said, "Book writing had always been something I wanted to do since I was a child, anyway. My mother often encouraged me to write books, so this all came together well as I had a purpose and strong desire!"

Strong desire indeed. Kellem has come up with a specific number of ways to teach children how to BELIEVE, LOVE, LAUGH, RELAX and DREAM. "My niece, Jackie was very helpful in brainstorming initially, but my team and I had to revisit a lot of the original ideas and revamp them. I also needed a catchy and meaningful name to describe the books and the company I created to sell these books. It took a few months to finally come up with M.O.M Books. Mind Over Matter not only describes the purpose of these books: Resiliency, but also includes my late mother (M.O.M.) who always encouraged me to write books," shared Kellem.

BELIEVE is the first of five books emphasizing the important factors for resiliency. In this book, children will learn to BELIEVE in their possibilities. "My book, BELIEVE, is geared to teach children resiliency skills. I want children to believe they can overcome any obstacle, challenge or adversity they face. I want them to learn to BELIEVE in their potential and believe in themselves. My Mind Over Matter Books are just that: teaching children that dealing with life´s challenges requires mind over matter. Believing is just one Mind Over Matter trait," said Kellem. You can get a sneak peek of the book BELIEVE and listen to an interview with Kasey Crawford Kellem at http://youtu.be/L_PPnSHXzzY

However, don´t think this new author didn´t stumble along the way. Kellem said, "Yes, I stumbled with words and ideas along the way. Thankfully, my illustrator, Jan and editor, Dawn, were very helpful in coming up with pages and really revamped the books. I also picked the brains of my nieces and nephews on several occasions to get additional ideas."

The additional M.O.M Books are due to release soon later in 2012: LOVE; LAUGH; RELAX and DREAM. You can find out more about Kasey Crawford Kellem´s World of Ink Author/Book Tour schedule at http://storiesforchildrenpublishing.com/KaseyKellem.aspx.There will be giveaways, reviews, interviews, guest posts and more. Make sure to stop by and interact with Kellem and the hosts at the different stops by leaving comments and/or questions. You will be entered into the main the Book Giveaway each time.

In addition, come listen on February 20, 2012 to Blog Talk Radio´s World of Ink Network show: Stories for Children at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/worldofinknetwork. The hosts VS Grenier and Irene Roth will be chatting with Kasey Crawford Kellem about her M.O.M Books, writing, helping children to be resilient and her experiences. The show airs live February 20, 2012 at 2pm EST.